diff --git a/fuzz/Program.cs b/fuzz/Program.cs
index 8612dbd..0d19729 100644
--- a/fuzz/Program.cs
+++ b/fuzz/Program.cs
@@ -186,6 +186,7 @@ private static void Seed()
         File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(image, "minimal.png"), MinimalPng());
         File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(image, "gif-header"), "GIF89a"u8.ToArray());
         File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(image, "bmp-header"), "BM"u8.ToArray());
+        File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(image, "png-preset-dictionary"), PresetDictionaryPng());
         File.WriteAllBytes(Path.Combine(image, "empty"), []);
 
         var font = Path.Combine(fixtures, "Fonts", "n8PDFProbe.ttf");
@@ -252,6 +253,14 @@ private static string RepositoryRoot()
             "could not find the repository root (a directory holding tests/n8PDF.Tests/Fixtures)");
     }
 
+    /// <summary>
+    /// libFuzzer's minimised unit for #296, kept as a seed so a fresh corpus carries the
+    /// regression: a PNG whose IDAT sets the zlib header's FDICT bit, which zlib answers by
+    /// asking for a preset dictionary and .NET reports as a ZLibException — once an escaper.
+    /// </summary>
+    private static byte[] PresetDictionaryPng() => Convert.FromBase64String(
+        "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAAECAQAAAgAAAAAAAAADElEQVR4P5xjsmAcAAAARAAB//8dCFMA");
+
     private static byte[] MinimalPng()
     {
         var png = new List<byte> { 0x89, 0x50, 0x4E, 0x47, 0x0D, 0x0A, 0x1A, 0x0A };
diff --git a/src/n8PDF/Images/ImageReader.cs b/src/n8PDF/Images/ImageReader.cs
index bc25974..d48ee8a 100644
--- a/src/n8PDF/Images/ImageReader.cs
+++ b/src/n8PDF/Images/ImageReader.cs
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ public static ImageData Read(
         }
         catch (Exception e) when (e is ImageFormatException
             or IndexOutOfRangeException or ArgumentException or OverflowException
-            or DivideByZeroException or InvalidDataException)
+            or DivideByZeroException or InvalidDataException or IOException)
         {
             // A malformed image should cost its own placement, not the whole conversion — and
             // that sentence has to hold for the files the decoders did not think to refuse, not
@@ -65,7 +65,13 @@ or IndexOutOfRangeException or ArgumentException or OverflowException
             // escaping from crafted files of a few dozen bytes; each hole is filed as its own
             // issue with its own validation fix, tested at the decoder level where this net
             // cannot swallow the evidence, and this is the defence in depth behind those fixes
-            // rather than a substitute for any of them. OutOfMemoryException is deliberately not
+            // rather than a substitute for any of them. IOException joined the list when the fuzz
+            // job found ZLibException escaping a PNG whose zlib header asks for a preset
+            // dictionary (#296): it derives from IOException rather than InvalidDataException, so
+            // it sat outside every clause here, and it cannot be named — it is public in
+            // System.IO.Compression but absent from the net10.0 reference assembly. The width
+            // costs nothing, because every decoder behind this reads a byte array already in
+            // memory and none of them opens a file. OutOfMemoryException is deliberately not
             // here: that one means the process is in trouble, and hiding it helps nobody.
             _ = e;
             return null;
diff --git a/src/n8PDF/Images/PngDecoder.cs b/src/n8PDF/Images/PngDecoder.cs
index c2bffee..8489f36 100644
--- a/src/n8PDF/Images/PngDecoder.cs
+++ b/src/n8PDF/Images/PngDecoder.cs
@@ -138,9 +138,17 @@ private static byte[] Inflate(byte[] compressed, long maxBytes)
                 output.Write(buffer, 0, read);
             }
         }
-        catch (InvalidDataException)
+        catch (Exception e) when (e is InvalidDataException or IOException)
         {
             // A corrupt zlib stream is a picture this cannot read, not a fault in the reader (#7).
+            // IOException is the other half of that sentence: a header whose FDICT bit is set asks
+            // for a preset dictionary, which leaves zlib wanting one rather than calling the
+            // stream corrupt, and .NET raises ZLibException for it — outside
+            // InvalidDataException's family, and so outside the catch this once was (#296).
+            // ZLibException cannot be named: it is public in System.IO.Compression but absent
+            // from the net10.0 reference assembly, so its public base is what a catch can say.
+            // Nothing is lost by the width, because the only stream here is a MemoryStream over a
+            // byte array in hand — it performs no I/O, so an IOException can only be the inflater.
             throw new ImageFormatException("PNG image data is not a valid zlib stream.");
         }
 
diff --git a/src/n8PDF/Images/TiffDecoder.cs b/src/n8PDF/Images/TiffDecoder.cs
index b43ca9d..1972a19 100644
--- a/src/n8PDF/Images/TiffDecoder.cs
+++ b/src/n8PDF/Images/TiffDecoder.cs
@@ -601,9 +601,12 @@ private static byte[] Inflate(byte[] data, int offset, int length, int expected)
                 output.Write(buffer, 0, read);
             }
         }
-        catch (InvalidDataException)
+        catch (Exception e) when (e is InvalidDataException or IOException)
         {
             // A corrupt Deflate strip is a picture this cannot read, not a fault in the reader (#35).
+            // A strip whose zlib header sets FDICT asks for a preset dictionary instead of being
+            // corrupt, and .NET raises ZLibException for that — the same hole as in PngDecoder,
+            // caught the same way and for the same reasons, which are written out there (#296).
             throw new ImageFormatException("TIFF strip is not a valid Deflate stream.");
         }
 
diff --git a/tests/n8PDF.Tests/ImageDecoderHostileTests.cs b/tests/n8PDF.Tests/ImageDecoderHostileTests.cs
index bc5890b..aee5efd 100644
--- a/tests/n8PDF.Tests/ImageDecoderHostileTests.cs
+++ b/tests/n8PDF.Tests/ImageDecoderHostileTests.cs
@@ -189,6 +189,27 @@ public void Tiff_deflate_strip_is_bounded_against_its_rows()   // #30
         Timed("TIFF deflate bomb", () => ImageReader.TryRead(tiff));
     }
 
+    [Fact]
+    public void Tiff_deflate_strip_asking_for_a_preset_dictionary_fails_cleanly()   // #296
+    {
+        // The same hole as the PNG one: a strip whose zlib header sets FDICT leaves zlib wanting
+        // a dictionary, which .NET reports as ZLibException rather than a data error, and which
+        // #35's catch therefore let past. Asserted at the decoder, where the net cannot hide it.
+        byte[] strip = [0x78, 0x3f, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x63, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00];
+        var b = new TiffBuilder().Tags(8);
+        var stripAt = b.Blob(strip);
+        var tiff = b
+            .Tag(256, 3, 1, 8).Tag(257, 3, 1, 8)       // 8x8
+            .Tag(258, 3, 1, 8).Tag(277, 3, 1, 1)
+            .Tag(259, 3, 1, 8)                          // Deflate
+            .Tag(273, 4, 1, stripAt).Tag(279, 4, 1, strip.Length)
+            .Build();
+        _output.WriteLine($"{tiff.Length}-byte TIFF whose Deflate strip asks for a preset dictionary");
+
+        Assert.IsType<ImageFormatException>(Record.Exception(() => TiffDecoder.Decode(tiff)));
+        Assert.Null(ImageReader.TryRead(tiff));
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public void Ccitt_zero_run_strip_does_not_spin()   // #46
     {
diff --git a/tests/n8PDF.Tests/PngHostileTests.cs b/tests/n8PDF.Tests/PngHostileTests.cs
index ef44565..ce5c817 100644
--- a/tests/n8PDF.Tests/PngHostileTests.cs
+++ b/tests/n8PDF.Tests/PngHostileTests.cs
@@ -36,6 +36,15 @@ private static byte[] ZlibOfZeros(int count)
         return raw.ToArray();
     }
 
+    /// <summary>A zlib stream whose header asks for a preset dictionary it cannot be given.</summary>
+    private static byte[] PresetDictionaryZlib()
+    {
+        // CMF 0x78 is deflate over a 32K window; FLG 0x3f sets FDICT (bit 5) and carries an
+        // FCHECK that makes the pair a multiple of 31, so the header passes its own check and
+        // zlib gets as far as asking. What follows stands in for the DICTID and the data.
+        return [0x78, 0x3f, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x01, 0x63, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00];
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public void A_decompression_bomb_is_refused_against_the_declared_size()
     {
@@ -121,6 +130,39 @@ public void A_corrupt_idat_fails_cleanly()   // #7
         Assert.Null(ImageReader.TryRead(png.ToArray()));
     }
 
+    [Fact]
+    public void An_idat_asking_for_a_preset_dictionary_fails_cleanly()   // #296
+    {
+        // FDICT is the one malformation zlib answers with Z_NEED_DICT rather than a data error,
+        // and .NET raises ZLibException for it — an IOException, outside the family #7's catch
+        // named. Two bytes of a PNG therefore used to take the whole conversion down.
+        var png = new List<byte> { 0x89, 0x50, 0x4E, 0x47, 0x0D, 0x0A, 0x1A, 0x0A };
+        var ihdr = new List<byte>();
+        Be32(ihdr, 2); Be32(ihdr, 2);
+        ihdr.Add(8); ihdr.Add(6); ihdr.Add(0); ihdr.Add(0); ihdr.Add(0);
+        Chunk(png, "IHDR", ihdr.ToArray());
+        Chunk(png, "IDAT", PresetDictionaryZlib());
+        Chunk(png, "IEND", []);
+
+        var ex = Record.Exception(() => PngDecoder.Decode(png.ToArray()));
+        Assert.IsType<ImageFormatException>(ex);
+        Assert.Null(ImageReader.TryRead(png.ToArray()));
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void The_minimised_fuzz_unit_from_the_image_target_is_read_as_null()   // #296
+    {
+        // libFuzzer's own reduction of the crash, kept verbatim: the input the scheduled job
+        // wrote out. The corpus itself is not in git — it lives in the Actions cache and is
+        // rebuilt by `dotnet run -- seed` — so fuzz/Program.cs seeds this same unit, and this
+        // holds the assertion where the suite can see it.
+        var unit = Convert.FromBase64String(
+            "iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAAECAQAAAgAAAAAAAAADElEQVR4P5xjsmAcAAAARAAB//8dCFMA");
+        _output.WriteLine($"the minimised unit is {unit.Length} bytes");
+
+        Assert.Null(ImageReader.TryRead(unit));
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public void A_chunk_length_near_int_max_does_not_pass_the_bounds_check()   // #3
     {